Pai's Anguish
by Asharion
Summary: A one shot from Pai's perspective, set after the Anime's ending. The Alien Trio is on their way back to Earth after being exiled from their home planet.


_Little one shot I couldn't resist sharing of the alien trio returning to earth after being exiled._

Disclaimer; _I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew nor the characters wherein. They belong to whomever holds the rights to the story, created by Mia Ikumi._

 **In space, sound did not travel.** The absence of noise coming from the exterior of the ship was deafening in its embrace. It curled around Pai's mind and body, constricting him with a nigh unbearable pressure. Only the softest hum from the assorted technology and an occasional blip from a monitor broke the suffocating atmosphere.

It hung heavy on his shoulders, tugging them down into a subtle slump uncharacteristic of the proud warrior. Slate colored eyes were flat and dull, and a hollowness depressed his cheeks, though he hadn't lost much weight. His entire posture seemed to sag against his effort to remain straight, as if he were a ragdoll, suspended.

His gaze was fixed to the soft red glow of the screen, dimmed for the simulated nighttime hours to be gentle on his vision. He had been watching it for some time, though it was not until a particular symbol and alert sprang to life that he truly paid attention.

Earth. His mouth felt dry at the thought of it, and he felt a distinctive hitch in the rhythm of his heartrate. A momentary pause, a slight flutter, before continuing as before. He was glad the Control Room was, aside from himself, empty. Taruto or Kisshu might have been able to hear his body's traitorous betrayal of the anxiety and turmoil that warred within him.

While his carefully composed and ever-stoic visage remained barren of expression, that did not mean that the innermost sanctum of his mind was, too. Pai still _felt._ He still had _opinions._ And he had his own way of voicing them, though it was always controlled. Always given with calculated reasoning and deliberate intent.

The alien closed his eyes firmly, allowing himself to feel the raging storm within. It crawled beneath his skin, itched at the back of his throat, and leisurely dragged the weight of its chains around his heart. Constricting, consuming, burning away at his cool demeanor with the feverish touch of an anguished passion.

He remembered their faces. Their expressions when they arrived were everything he had hoped for, had craved, the very embodiment of his determination and desire to train for the mission and see it through. He had loathed the fragile hope harbored in their exhausted features. To see that hope turned into justified comfort, into the knowledge that things would, for once, go right for them.

Pai could not bear to see his family, his friends, the entirety of their dying tribes, rely on such fragile and unfounded wishful thinking. And so he had sought to give something for that hope to rest upon, to make it not only a far away fantasy, but a present reality.

He did not realize tears had formed in his shuttered eyes until he felt the wet, molten trail carved along his cheek before it slid down his neck. Astonished, Pai opened his eyes. His reflection looked back at him in the dark window of the Control Room, distant stars twinkling behind his ghostly image. He lifted a hand to his cheek, and gingerly touched the face he no longer recognized. The dull eyes, the shadows beneath them.

His pride had died when their expressions had changed.

A memory flashed vividly across the forefront of his mind. Sweet little Kona, his eldest cousin and dearest friend. Her eyes were the first that greeted him as he and his brothers by bond had teleported from the ship to the frozen ground. He remembered the way Kisshu had triumphantly yelled out their victory, how Taruto had embraced his mother.

Their celebration turned into hushed anxiety when they explained what they had done, what had happened. The Mew Aqua was presented, shown as their key to salvation, to survival and so much more.

" _But… Deep Blue-Sama is gone?"_ little Kona asked in a quiet voice that held a noticeable tremor. Whispers passed through the crowd. Pai remembered opening his mouth to speak, but he couldn't remember what he had said, what Kisshu and Taruto had said.

All he remembered was their faces.

The way hope and delight had turned to anger, to disappointment. Relief rotted away into to revulsion, and all of it aimed at them. The Mew Aqua had already been released, sent into the ground with a blinding flash of light and a warmth coasting across the deep ravine. Pai distantly recalled the green blush the frigid rock had gained as life began to fight its way up, awakened and empowered.

There was a moment, a delicate tip of time where two paths unfolded before them. Two options, and the future sat suspended, breath held, waiting to see which one it would be pushed towards.

" _This is not what you were sent to do!"_ someone had yelled, sealing their fate. Pai often agonized over what may have happened had someone first reacted in grateful bliss, what the probability of a different outcome would have been. He had equated it to an 82.4% chance of a positive outcome.

The words were a spark to light the dry timber. Angry voices echoed off, demanding what had become of their long-awaited heritage. Earth, the beautiful, splendorous paradise with its blue skies, warm sun, and bountiful flourish of life. Taruto had stammered something about the humans, and that was all it had taken to drive them into a frenzy.

Pai had been too shocked to speak.

He had starred with an open mouth and wide eyes as Kisshu stepped forward, defending their actions. At first, he thought they would be swayed, but then the subject of Deep Blue's death had resurfaced, and that was all it took.

Leaving for Earth the first time had been painful, though he had never admitted to this truth. Leaving the second time had been excruciating.

The hand that hung by his side clenched into a fist, the sharp points of his claws puncturing the calloused palm. Slowly, deliberately, he wiped the wet streak from his face with the other, before pressing a button on the glowing screen. The lights came on in the Control Room, flooding it with a warm, bright amber glow. They would be arriving shortly. It was time to wake his brothers.


End file.
